Mike “Fish” Fisher’s folk music has been called “mountain music from the Rust Belt,” a description he embraces.

“I do a lot of traveling and writing down South. That’s where my weird sound comes from that doesn’t really belong up here,” Fisher said.

He spends most of the spring and summer playing music in Toledo. In the fall and winter he heads south where he plays shows and occasionally escapes into the woods to hike.

“It’s hard to be out in the mountains and the woods and not get inspired,” he said.

Fisher wrote “You’re a Stunner” in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.

“It’s basically a collection of cheap pickup lines I’ve embedded in my head and I just put them in the right order and made them rhyme,” Fisher said. “I was riding into Asheville, North Carolina, for dinner and thought of it on the ride there and then I jotted it down on whatever napkin or placemat was there. Then I tweaked the wordplay for the next couple weeks.”

RELATED: Summer CD of local music to benefit American Red Cross

He said he wrote the song with his wife Christina in mind.

“They are all things that at one time or another I said to my wife,” Fisher said. “I’m always trying to come up with the next clever thing to impress her.”

The lighthearted song is part of Fisher’s not-so-lighthearted second album, “Gunpowder & Gasoline,” which came out in May.

“I knew I had some very deep songs coming on the album and some challenging things and I just kind of wanted to write one that’s fun to hear and fun to play,” he said.

Fisher recorded the song with producer E.J. Wells in Waterville.

“We’ve worked together so long he can read my mind,” Fisher said. “I told him I wanted a down-home flavor for the pop-oriented song. We added banjo under the track. That added some roots and let the melody be the pop part.”

Fisher planned to submit the song to last year’s American Red Cross benefit CD, but the recording wasn’t done in time. After the album came out, Fisher gave a copy to Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller, who asked him about using “You’re a Stunner” on this year’s CD.

“That confirmed it for me,” Fisher said. “It kind of picked itself.”

Many who are familiar with Fisher’s folk performances wouldn’t guess he’s also part of a heavy metal band, Societys Ugly Son, which performs all original songs and has released five albums.

Fisher said he’s happy to lend his talents to a cause like the American Red Cross of Northwest Ohio.

“Usually musicians can give back more by what we’re creating than what we own,” Fisher said. “I don’t have much to give but I can give you access to things I wrote.”

After going through nursing school and practicing for 15 years, Cindy Slee was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

The autoimmune disease took what had been her life, her whole career, and made it completely impossible to maintain.

But Slee said music had been a part of her life no matter what she was doing, so when nursing was no longer an option, she was able to return to that love. The switch led her to write “Happy As A Jaybird,” which she donated to the American Red Cross “Red, White & You, Too!” CD.

RELATED: Summer CD of local music to benefit American Red Cross

Even before nursing school, Slee said she fell in love with the guitar. By her late teens, she was performing in groups. In nursing school, she met Theresa Konwinski and the two wrote and played music together.

After nursing school, Konwinski moved, but they continued to write songs via email. When Konwinski moved back to the Toledo area, she suggested the two get back together. The band they formed was called Stat Band, because they were both nurses, Slee said.

“Happy As A Jaybird” was conceived when Slee heard her mother say that exact phrase.

“Any songwriter will tell you that it’s so great when a song just falls into place,” Slee said.

“I was out West, visiting my parents in Las Vegas, and I keep a guitar there. My mom said something about being ‘happy as a jaybird,’ and I said, ‘You know, that’d make a great line.’ So probably by the time I left there, I had written the lyrics.”

Slee said her inspiration, what drives her to play music, is that no matter what mood you might be in music has the ability to take you to a different place.

“She has demonstrated a lot of courage over the years,” Konwinski said. “She’s had some really dark days. When she first got [diagnosed], it progressed so quickly that we were afraid she’d never get out of the wheel chair. She’s so determined and not self-pitying. And her fearlessness is what gave her the ability to do music on her own. That’s not easy to just get your guitar and yourself and play in front of people.”

Chris Boggs is amazed at how quiet her house is without her husband Eddie, who died in January after an eight-month battle with cancer. She’s thankful for all the songs he recorded during his decades of making music so she — and others who loved him — can still hear his voice.

“We cry every time we listen to his songs, but I do every day,” Chris wrote in an email to Toledo Free Press.

Boggs, 68, a folk musician and retired teacher and counselor, loved music but made serving others his life’s work.

“His kindness, his positive spin on life, his whole being was about love and being thankful for what he could do for others,” Chris said. “He was a simple man. He loved life and he lived to lighten people’s loads. And his avenue was music and kindness. He took time to listen to people, and sang as a way to make them smile.”

Boggs was always involved with charity projects. For years, he hosted an annual holiday variety show that raised more than $250,000. He contributed a song, “That First Snowfall,” to Toledo Free Press’ Make-A-Wish benefit CD in 2012 and “Another Put-in-Bay Summer” to last year’s American Red Cross benefit CD.

This summer’s Red Cross benefit CD, “Red, White & You, Too!” is dedicated to Boggs and contains one of his signature songs, “Uptown Boogie Down Saturday Night.”

“Eddie believed in these projects when no one else understood what we were trying to accomplish, and he connected me with a score of local musicians,” said Toledo Free Press Editor in Chief Michael S. Miller, who produces the Toledo Free Press charity CDs. “No one has been as gracious and patient as Eddie and I can’t imagine these CDs without his voice.”

“When we were contacted this year for an upbeat song, ‘Uptown Boogie Down Saturday Night’ immediately came to mind,” Chris said.

“Come Monday morning, I’m up at dawn, ’cause I’m a working man,” the song goes. “In less than an hour, I’m out of the shower and headed down to the plant / And all week long, I give it my best, but come Friday evening I give it a rest / I leave my worries all behind ’cause there’s one thing on my mind / And that’s an uptown boogie down Saturday night.”

“He wrote and recorded it around 1992-93 specifically for the people of Toledo — the hardworking individuals who give their time Monday through Friday at a job and enjoy their weekends, specifically Saturday night, with the people they love,” Chris said. “He wanted to capture the simple joys in life. We always called it his hokey song, but it has a catchy tune and over the years became a favorite original of his with the people that came to see him.”

Those who worked with Boggs at Sylvania Schools also remember his impact.

“He did so much to make this little corner of the globe a better place,” retired teacher Al Thompson said.

Carmen Miller has been signed with TMG and she is going at the music world with guns blazing.

“It’s been a whirlwind of a year,” Miller said.

Not so much of a whirlwind that Miller forgot about one of her favorite summer projects. Miller’s song, “I Want it All,” is one of the 21 featured on this year’s “Red, White & You, Too!” CD, benefiting the American Red Cross of Northwest Ohio.

“I love the cause,” Miller said. “Red Cross has always been doing such great work in the community. I was involved last year and it is always such a fun thing to do. The ‘Red, White & You’ CD is one of the highlights of the year for me.”

RELATED: Summer CD of local music to benefit American Red Cross

Her track for this project stems from her love of ’80s music, with a few personal twists.

“This was my ode to ’80s hair metal with a touch of 30 Seconds to Mars to boot,” Miller said. “This is one of my favorite songs. It’s fun, summer music.”

The song, Miller said, encourages listeners to experience each moment of life as fully as possible.

“It’s actually about not limiting yourself to what people think and being committed to having the best of life that life has to offer,” Miller said. “With me, everything that I sing has a bit of a Christian bend so I just wanna make sure it comes across that the Bible says in Christ you can do all things so I want it all.”

Besides getting signed, the last year has seen Miller collaborating with two groups, Aaftermath and Vertigo.

“Aaftermath is one of my favorite things to do right now because it’s so outside of the box from what people think,” Miller said. “A lot of people look at me and they see gospel, as far as when you hear Christian artists and whatever, but I am a big metal girl. I’m a big ol’ rock star.”

Miller hopes the Red Cross CD sells out this year.

“Everything happens for a reason if you go through adversity or something like that,” Miller said. “The last 10 years have been kind of difficult but, you know what? I’m here, I’m standing and I want it all!”

JT Nero and Allison Russell of Birds of Chicago celebrated the birth of their first child in December. After touring with her parents for more than six months, baby Ida Maeve has seen 38 states and counting.

RELATED: Summer CD of local music to benefit American Red Cross

“That’s been quite a ride, as it is for any parent,” Nero said. “We’re first-time parents and we’re trying to figure it out.”

Nero said the 6-month-old is so accustomed to life in a van that rest stops become a struggle for her.

“Luckily, she does not yet know that there’s anything but a touring life,” Nero said. “I suppose one of her friends will explain that to her at some point.”

Amid endless tours, Birds of Chicago has found time to donate their track, “All the City Girls,” to this year’s “Red, White & You, Too!” CD, benefiting the American Red Cross of Northwest Ohio.

“With a project like the Red Cross, it’s a kind of win-win for everybody,” Nero said. “It’s nice for artists to donate their music and perhaps get their music out there to people who otherwise wouldn’t hear it.”

Larry Meyer, the group’s legal consultant and publicist in Toledo, informed them about the intended project. The duo no longer live here, so Meyer makes sure they are in the loop.

“The Red Cross is an amazing organization and it’s good to work with charities where you actually see the work that’s done,” Nero said.

Their song for this year’s CD is an ode to summer activities following a frigid winter season.

“The song is a summertime in the city kind of song,” Nero said. “It was a long and brutal winter for all us Midwesterners, so this is a song about how to have fun in the summertime.”

The next step for Birds of Chicago includes more tours and an upcoming album release.

“The rest of the summer we’ll be on the road playing festivals, then we hope to have a new album recorded and out before the new year,” Nero said. “So we’re about halfway through recording it now and, in a perfect world, we’d have it out by October.”

Nero said projects like the Red Cross CD help prove that musicians can reach outside of themselves to give to a cause.

“The pursuit of music can be a very self-involved and narcissistic venture by nature, so anytime you get to do something to give back it feels good,” Nero said. “We hope it raises a bit of awareness. A little bit of good is a good thing.”